Transformers: Age of Extinction

Worst of the transformers movies. Was okay until about a 3rd of the way through. Mark Wahlberg was better than Shia, but the movie was bloated with too many similar scenes.

Enough chase scenes and slow motion explosions for the whole of 2014. It would be nice to see some sort of characters developed for the transformers. Because they are created as one dimensional punchlines there is no possibility to have any interesting story that involves the transformers interacting with each other.

Wait for the DVD if you must see it, but you wont be missing much if you avoid it all together.

The fourth entry into the franchise is a misstep that squanders the will of the preceding entries.

Review: Epic! Epic! Epic! This was one extremely epic movie with brilliant graphics and a decent storyline. I much preferred Wahlberg in the lead than LaBeouf but his child looked more like his girlfriend than his daughter. Anyway, you can definitely see were the whole budget went because the movie is full of impressive action which had excellent attention to detail. It does take some time to get going because the director wanted to give the new characters some depth, so I can't blame him for that. The problem that I had with some or the earlier movies in this franchise was that the fighting scenes were quite confusing because there was so just going on, but in this movie the director cleared up the action scenes which made it easier to watch. I was a bit sceptical when I saw the length of the film but it really doesn't seem that long when your watching it. Anyway, it's definitely one to watch and I'm kicking myself for not watching it on the big screen. Enjoyable!

Round-Up: After reading some of the reviews for this movie, I really wasn't expecting that much but I can't see why people are complaining about the wit and the length. Personally I liked the added wit throughout the movie but it could have done without his daughter and the pointless boyfriend who was only good behind the wheel. On the downside, it does get a bit manic when they go to Hong Kong and the storyline does start to get a bit crazy, but the action scenes save the day. I wasn't a big fan of the previous movies, except for the first one, but this has to be the second best in the franchise. With such a massive profit made, I'm sure we're going to see more from the Transformers, even though some people really didn't like this one.

Budget: $210million Worldwide Gross: $1Billion (WOW!)

I recommend this movie to people who are into the Transformers franchise and want to see a movie full of action with the usual robots and "save the world" concept. 7/10

I saw this at a premier event in IMAX 3D. Age of Extinction probably has the worst plot of all the transformers. It's like they didn't even try to develop a story line. It's over 2 1/2 hours of explosions and CGI with cool but uninteresting characters. I feel like they could have done a much better job if they developed the characters more and had better dialogue as the characters had potential. If you are a child this movie is perfect. Lots of pretty eye candy. IMAX 3D looked great although sometimes the picture got blurry. This never happens in Real 3D. I just wish this movie was shorter as I watched it on a Wednesday and didn't get home till late.

Age of Extinction holds a dismal 18% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.6 on IMDB and whilst there are better blockbusters out there these scores are a bit harsh. Most criticisms focus on the subplot between Shane and Tessa (i.e. the Romeo and Juliet law scene), the catering to the Chinese market, and the product placement. These weren't unwarranted but there were some improvements, like reducing the number of Autobots down to five and giving them some characteristics. I would be lying if a scene where Optimus Prime fights a robot dinosaur appeals to my inner 10-year-old. I personally think the bulk of the plot where Transformers are getting hunted and an company experiments on them would have fitted better as the first sequel.